Is there a quick test to determine eye dominance?
Try the following to determine eye dominance. With both eyes open, line up the tip of your finger, at arm's length, with a distant object. Close each eye separately. The eye that results in the object and you finger remaining aligned is your dominant eye.

Is there a quick test to determine hand dominance?
No, there is not. In fact, the only sure way to determine brain dominance is to anesthetize one half of the brain and then see what functions are still handled by the still functioning hemisphere. There have been interesting results obtained, such as people able to respond to visual cues but not verbal cues. I don't know about you, dear reader, but I am not willing to submit to this test just to definitively answer the question.
However, you can try this: Sitting comfortably, fold your hands together and notice which thumb is on top. Lefties will have the right thumb on top.

Is lefthandedness inherited?
While lefthanders doubtless run in some families, scientists are unsure that the issue is completely resolved. Part of the problem has to do whether a person's hand preference is the result of genetic determination or some other reason ie forced to switch because of convention, accident, what ever.

Peg's note: one branch of my family contains eight siblings, four boys and four girls. ALL of the boys are lefthanded (and color blind); NONE of the girls are!!

Why are there more Lefthanded Males than Females?
Recent research has looked at the amount of Testosterone present in the fetus and amniotic fluid during pregnancy. Scientists have speculated that an excessive level of testosterone slows the development of the left side of the brain, which allows the right side of the brain to achieve and maintain dominance.
Adult females normally produce a small amount of testosterone which will find its way into the amniotic fluid during pregnancy. A male fetus produces some testosterone in the uterus during development while a female fetus will produce no testosterone. Therefore, the chances of testosterone reaching excessive levels are much higher in a male fetus than in a female fetus simply because the normal levels of testosterone for a male fetus are higher in the first place.
Males are about one and one half times more likely to be lefthanded than are females.

Why are Lefthanders sometimes called Southpaws?
This is a baseball term. It seems that on many (most) baseball diamonds the left hand side of the pitchers mound would face south.At one time, most ball-parks were constructed so that the setting sun was behind the batter so as not to be in his eyes. The LH pitcher's throwing arm would then be toward the South as he faced the plate. With larger grandstands in modern stadia (not to mention indoor baseball) this is less of a concern than it once was.

Why do we wear our wedding bands on the third finger of the left hand?
The custom dates back to the early Egyptian belief that the vena amoris (vein of love) ran directly from the heart to the third finger of the left hand.

I'm rightie, my child's lefty. How can I teach him/her to tie shoe-laces?
Try this. In order to have the child see the hand movements in the proper direction, sit opposite the child rather than next to him or behind him. This will probably work for tying a necktie as well. I am also told that it applies to teaching knitting as well.

Why does women's clothing button the opposite way of mens (left vs. right)?
This goes back to the Victorian age. It seems that a proper gentleman would dress himself while a proper lady would require the services of a dresser. In order for the motion of securing a button to be the same, and to account for the fact that the clothing of a man would be fastened from behind while the clothing of a woman would be fastened while facing the clothing, the buttons on men's clothing would have to be opposite of women's.

Ambidexterity is the ability to use both your hands with equal ease or facility, but if you're armless, it could be your feet! In fact, it is quite advantageous in certain sports and martial arts to be able to use both your feet with equal facility. The Greeks encouraged and tried to promote ambidexterity because it was simply logical in sports and battle to be adept with both hands instead of one. By combining the Phoenician style of writing right to left with their own left to right system, the Greeks created a reading and writing system called boustrophedon, where the lines ran alternately right-to-left and left-to-right. With alternating sweeps of the eyes back and forth, reading was more swift and efficient.

Michelangelo (1475-1564) was a multi-faceted genius like Leonardo da Vinci. He often painted with both hands. When one got tired, he switched to the other. British artist, Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873) could draw with both hands simultaneously -- a horse's head with one hand and a stag's head with the other. He taught drawing and etching to Queen Victoria who was a lefty that became ambidextrous.

Fleming, Einstein and Tesla were all ambidextrous. Benjamin Franklin was also ambidextrous and signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with his left hand. U.S. 20th president, James Garfield was a well educated backwoodsman born in a log cabin. Although he could write with either hand with equal ease, he could also write Greek with his left hand and Latin with his right hand simultaneously! Harry Kahne demonstrated his mental dexterity in 1922 by performing several mental operations simultaneously. While one hand was writing mirror language, the other hand intermingled upside down and backward letters.

Rats given diverse and enriched environments have more connective dendritic spines to their neurons and overall heavier brains than rats exposed to dull, unchallenging environments. Left-handed and ambidextrous people have 11% larger corpus callosa (the bundle of nerve fibers joining the right and left sides of the brain) than right handed people. An autopsy of Einstein's brain revealed a larger profusion of superficial capillaries interlacing the cerebral cortex than the average brain, as well as an additional amount of glial cells. Obviously the more we use and exercise our brain, the more it physically grows. The following exercises are designed to task the little used areas of the brain to allow such growth.

To be able to use both hands equally well, practice is the key. During the day, use your left hand more (if you're right-handed) by consciously switching when you're about ready to do something -- pouring a glass of milk, bouncing a ball, flipping and picking up coins, hammering a nail, cutting and buttering bread, stirring your coffee, swirling water in a glass, twisting off bottle caps, etc. Wherever you would use your one hand, use the other instead -- putting a key in the door, combing your hair, brushing your teeth, shaving, grasping objects, etc. When putting on your clothes, put your other hand or foot into the garment first. Thread your belt around your waist in the opposite direction. Put your watch on your other hand. Use your other hand in sports -- hitting a baseball or a tennis ball, throwing a football, shooting a basketball, etc. Practice stirring 2 cups of tea simultaneously, swirling 2 half filled glasses of water clockwise and counterclockwise, and bouncing two balls at the same time. Get used to the kinesthetic feeling of using the muscles of both your hands and arms together. Catch 2 balls thrown to you at the same time. Throw 2 paper wads at the same time into the same paper basket -- one underhand and the other overhand. Throw 2 darts simultaneously at a dart board with both hands. Write with both hands at the same time. Draw a butterfly, a vase or a geometric figure using both hands simultaneously, but keep practicing these exercises.

Many musical instruments are played ambidextrously, and many athletes are adept at using both of their hands. Since swimming is an ambidextrous activity, teaching dyslectic children to swim often helps them to read and write normally because it balances the brain hemispheres. Become ambidextrous and along with an added physiological brain growth, a more balanced integration of your 2 hemispheres will be achieved. Studies have shown that ambidextrous people are more emotionally independent, more determined, more adaptable to new situations and more apt to handle problems without giving up.

Gleaned from http://www.mind-course.com/ambi.html

The left side (of the brain) controls the right half of your body, and the right side controls the left half.
Therefore lefthanders are the only people in their right mind.
--Bill "Spaceman" Lee, Red Sox pitcher

Some lefthanded trivia:

Lefties have a higher recovery rate from strokes since they share more from both sides of the brain.

Lefthandedness is primarily inherited.

Twice as many males as females are lefties.

Twins have a high percentage of lefthandedness.

Lefties usually favor their left foot also.

15% of the population is lefthanded and 80% of them are born to right-handed parents. And mothers giving birth after age 30 are more likely to produce a lefty.

Lefthanded people are a high percentage of over-achievers.

One study shows lefties have a good sense of distance and proportion, and adapt better to visual distortion because they have receptors on both sides of the brain. Because lefties have been forced somewhat to conform to a right-handed world, they are believed to be more emotionally independent, more determined, more apt to have an "I am my own person" attitude.

People in feudal societies tended to walk on the left of the road so their weapon was between them and a possible opponent. Jousting knights held their lances in their right hands, so that opponents were passing on each others' right.

Left-handed French general Napoleon Bonaparte forced his armies to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and the advancing enemy. And from Napoleon's time on, any part of the world colonized by the French set up the same system for traveling.

Lord Baden Powell chose the left hand for the scouting handshake--was it because the left hand is nearer the heart or because using the non-weapon hand is a sign of trust?

The term "southpaw" comes from a time when baseball parks were built with home plate in the west corner of the field. When a left-handed pitcher faced the batter, his left arm--the pitching paw--was on the south side.

Because their rudders were attached to the right side, ancient sailing vessels were docked to the left. This side became the "port side." Today left-handers are sometimes called "port siders."

All 4 members of The Manhatten Transfer are left-handed.

From http://www.umkc.edu/imc/lefties.htm

Everyone is born left-handed.
You turn right-handed when you commit your first sin.
--sign on Norman Schwarzkopf's desk

Scout lefthanded handshake:

"When Colonel Baden-Powell entered the capital city of the Ashanti people in 1896 he was met by one of the Chiefs who came to him holding out his left hand. B.-P. held out his right in return but the Chief said: 'No, in my country the bravest of the brave shake with the left hand.' So began the 'left handshake' of the world-wide brotherhood of Scouts."
From: The Left Handshake, London, 1949

From the Webelos Scout Book, BSA. (A similar paragraph is in the BSA Boy Scout Handbook):
To give the Scout handclasp, use your left hand instead of the right. Do not interlock your fingers. The Scout handclasp is a token of friendship. That's why you use your left hand—the one nearest your heart.

Click above to visit a site that tells it all! *VBS*

More great links:

Information

Famous Lefties

Cards for Lefthanders' Day

This page created for Diva of the 'Net

by Peggy Swycaffer